Saving You, Saving Myself
by liquidity
Summary: Lucas' life changes when a stranger washes up on the shore of Tazmily Village. NessxLucas
1. Fateful Meeting

_Author's Note: I've loved the Mother series for years. After finishing Mother 3, I discovered how awesome the pairing of Ness and Lucas was, I decided to give it a go at my own fanfiction. I realize that most fics on this pairing take place in the Brawl universe, but I wanted it to retain its roots. It more or less takes place in the world of Mother 3 some years post-game, and I wanted to create my own situation that they would meet._

**This fanfiction contains boy/boy themes, if that disturbs you, then don't read my story.**

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter One: Fateful Meeting

.

.

He didn't know when it happened, or how recent events took the turn they had. All Lucas knew was that he had a revelation.. that he'd fallen for someone he could _never_ have. So many things about it seemed wrong.. but in his heart, those things were of no consequence. It didn't matter to him that he was in love with the most amazing person he'd ever met.. even if it was another boy. It didn't even matter to him that he was not from the same place, and quite possibly not even from the same time.

"Ness..." he whispered the name that seemed to haunt his dreams these recent nights, unheard by its owner, who was asleep in a small cot in the corner of the room.

The harsh reality of it, however, was that such idealistic proclamations within his heart would be hard-pressed to see the light of day. The blonde boy had recently turned seventeen, yet had not entirely grown out of his shy demeanor. Something that saving the world had not changed about him was his humble inconfidence, not to mention his logical side sharply silenced his enamored daydreaming whenever opportunities may have arisen to speak of it.

Blue eyes gazed at the sleeping form across the room, and he bit his lower lip. It almost hurt to look at the face of the dark-haired boy sometimes. That face saw a deep, untroubled sleep, which Lucas may have envied him for, if it wasn't so breathtakingly beautiful in his eyes. While Ness was not awake to wonder at his staring, he admired everything about him that he could see... the way the disheveled, black hair brushed against his forehead, the long, dark lashes peacefully closed. The soft curve of his lips, slightly parted as he breathed deeply.

Lucas then shut his eyes. He couldn't take anymore just now... already he found himself fantasizing about running his fingertips through that mess of thick hair, only fully visible at night, when Ness took off his cap before bed. What would his hair feel like to touch...? Or his lips? They looked soft, and full. What would they taste like?

"You idiot," he hissed at his thoughts.

It had been several weeks since Ness had arrived in Tazmily. Not that Lucas had kept count or anything. Each day had felt like some kind of strange dream, from the moment that he Fuel had discovered his body washed up on the shore.

***

_"What the hell?! Lucas, there's a body here!"_

The blonde's head snapped up, eyes following where his friend had dashed off to the water's edge. A strangled sound of dismay burst from his throat as his gaze fell on the form of a strange young man, unmoving on the ground. Hesitantly approaching, he watched Fuel put two fingers to the neck of the boy, feeling for a pulse, placing his ear on his chest. It was not someone Lucas recognized. He looked to be about his own age, damp tendrils of dark hair lay limp about his face, his clothing, consisting of a blue and yellow striped shirt and denim shorts, were still saturated with sea water, giving the impression that he had not washed up very long ago. Nearby lay an abandoned baseball bat and a red cap with a blue bill.

"He's not breathing!" he said frantically, interrupting Lucas from his observations. "..He might still be alive! You stay with him, I'm going to find help!"

Fuel then sprinted off in the direction of the village square, before Lucas could protest, leaving the blonde alone with the incapacitated youth. Kneeling down beside the strange boy, he took one of his hands between his own. It was ice cold. Eyes clouded with worry, he was only dimly aware of a sensation that washed over him when he touched the other boy. Something both strange and yet familiar. He could not, however, put his finger on what it was. Azure eyes fell to a close and tried to let his mind fall into a state of calm. Once he was able to reach it, even in the boy's gravely serious position, Lucas was confident he was going to be alright.

It had been years since he needed to employ his psionic powers, but...

"Live," Lucas whispered.

A shimmer of faint light in shades of cerulean began to glow from his fingertips, Lucas' hands cupped the boy's face, his icy skin gradually warming beneath his hands, color slowly returning to his cheeks. The boy's fingers began to twitch, his face twisting into a small frown as he groaned. Blue eyes fluttered open, staring dazedly at the sky. Blinking rapidly, it took him a few moments to become aware of his surroundings. He was lying on a beach, he didn't have to sit up to identify the sound of waves lapping at the sand.

Digging his elbows into the ground, the black-haired boy struggled to prop himself up to look around, only to flop back down.

"Ungh." Squinting his eyes shut again, he clapped a hand to his forehead, as though in pain.

"Are you okay?" Lucas' voice made the youth's eyes snap open again and dart in the direction of the sound.

The two regarded each other for a moment. Lucas looking concerned, the other looking confused. The stranger's hand, still resting on his forehead, took notice of something absent. Something important.

"Hat," was all he said, as he again tried to move.

A bit more successful than before, he got himself into a sitting position, just in time to find the object in question being offered to him by the blonde. He took the cap and placed it on his head in a particular fashion, when he noticed the hand that retrieved his hat was still being held out to him.

"Thanks..." he mumbled, glancing up at Lucas.

He grasped his hand firmly as he allowed the blonde to help him to his feet. Brushing the sand off his shorts, he looked slightly irritated, with a hint of embarrassment. Whatever it was he was expecting, it wasn't to find himself half-dead on a beach, but he definitely owed this other kid for helping him out. Said other kid was now offering him the other item that was washed up with his carcass, the slightly worn, yet sturdy, wooden bat. He accepted it, with a nod, and looked the blonde over. He was wearing an outfit that was remarkably similar to his own, he noted with a raised brow, with red and yellow stripes across his body, and denim shorts... and really, really awesome hair. He held out his hand to Lucas, his face now cracking a smile.

"I'm Ness. To whom do I owe my life?"

The blonde's face tinged with a hint of pink at this, yet he shyly returned the smile and grasped his hand.

"Lucas..."

"Good to meetcha, Lucas! ...Uh... where is this place?" Ness asked, glancing around, finally beginning to take in his surroundings.

"Tazmily Village," the blonde answered, "..but I've never seen you around here before. Where did you come from?"

Ness opened his mouth to speak... but found that words would not come. A moment later he folded his arms, furrowing his brow thoughtfully.

"You know... that's a really good question."

***

The stranger called Ness had come from a place that Lucas knew must have been very far away, and knowing what he knew about the Nowhere Islands, as time passed on he began to realize that the dark-haired boy was an anomaly in his world. He didn't belong here, that was for sure. Yet, he couldn't be sure of much more than that. Ness could remember nothing about who he was, or where he came from. Just his name.

Lucas had pleaded with his father to let the unexpected newcomer stay in their house, as he clearly didn't have anywhere else to go. The easygoing Flint had no objections to it, he was ever the good samaritan around town. Thus, an extra bed had been set up for Ness in the corner of Lucas' room.

They had hoped that, with time, Ness might recall a few things about himself, or his background. However, in the weeks spent in Tazmily, there had been no sign of recovering any of his memories. Even with that grim realization, Lucas could never worry about it for long. Ness himself seemed so happy there, unconcerned about the amount of time it might take for any memories to return, if any, that the blonde boy could only return his enthusiasm.

The pair of them had become fast friends, in spite of having personalities that likened to night and day. Where Lucas was shy, introverted, and quiet, Ness was confident, outgoing, and friendly. Though they had only known one another for a few weeks, neither one of them could argue how close they had become in that time. As different as they were, they complimented one another perfectly. There was also some unique connection between them that vibrated whenever they would come into contact with each other, but neither one of them spoke of it. Lucas was not even entirely sure Ness was aware of it, but he could feel it. A small wave of energy whenever they touched.

As time passed, Lucas realized that he felt more than that strange energy whenever Ness touched him. Even something so simple as their hands accidentally brushing together, and the blonde felt a warm feeling swelling in his chest. Eventually Lucas began to look at Ness differently than he had when they first met. He found himself admiring Ness, inside and out in ways that stepped out of the boundaries of friendship. He adored his confidence, his personality, his smile. Everything about him.

He loved Ness, and the arrival at that knowledge was the most wonderful and most painful thing, all at once. Now the blonde restlessly watched Ness sleep, unable to think about anything but his best friend resting across the room.


	2. Of Girls, and Memories

_Author's Note: This fic is turning out to be a lot longer than I had intended, but I wanted to make it heartfelt and believable. Always time for PWP in another story, I guess. For now, I want my fluff. Enjoy!_

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Two: Of Girls, and Memories

.

.

Sleep must have eventually claimed him, because the next thing Lucas was aware of was a gentle hand shaking his shoulder.

"Hey Lucas, you feeling okay? You're usually awake way before me," a familiar voice spoke softly near his ear.

Blue eyes shot open, to find his best friend smiling down at him. Ness was already changed out of his pajamas, and into his usual attire. His bat, which he took with him everywhere, was resting against one shoulder. His free hand still on Lucas' shoulder, a fact which made the skin beneath the fabric of his pajamas feel just a little bit warmer, in that spot.

"F-Fine," stammered the blonde, tossing his blanket off of himself, and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Good to hear it! I'll meet ya outside, then," Ness nodded, still smiling, and he left the room, allowing Lucas some privacy to change.

As he pulled his usual shirt over his head, he briefly wondered if Ness had changed into his clothes while still in the room with him. Probably. Ness wasn't bashful about things like that, Lucas reasoned. Once he was dressed, he picked up a comb sitting on the bedside table and did what he could with the disheveled mop on top of his head. Satisfied when it twirled into the usual swirl at the crown of his head (that's all he could ever get it to do, really), he nodded and descended the stairs, grabbing an apple out of a bowl of conveniently placed fruit on the kitchen table. Taking a bite out of it, he meandered outside, where Ness was petting Boney.

The brown dog's tail was wagging at the attention, and Lucas softly cleared his throat to indicate his presence, so as not to talk with his mouth full of food. Ness straightened, turning around and his eyes fell upon the fruit in his hand with interest, which he was currently raising to his lips for another bite.

"Hey, lemme have some of that, huh?" He strode over to him then, leaning over to take his own bite of Lucas' apple.

Lucas swallowed hard, and froze. It wasn't that the blonde was unwilling to share... just that he became suddenly aware of just how close Ness was as he watched his mouth close around an unbitten portion of the fruit in his hand, only a few inches from his own face. Coming away with a taste, Ness grinned as he crunched, seemingly oblivious to having crossed a certain boundary of his friend's personal space.

"Thank you!" he crowed unabashedly while still chewing, he never did think so much about silly formalities like swallowing first in the presence of the blonde, he was way too comfortable with him for that.

Lucas could not help but grin now. The shy boy was always inwardly afraid of rubbing anyone the wrong way, but Ness had confidence in spades, one of the many things Lucas loved about him. Not the type that made him arrogant, but the kind of confidence that allowed him to come away from any situation with a smile. That same confidence that allowed the dark-haired boy to now lead him by the hand toward town, unfazed by how the display looked to anyone else, even to Lucas.

Lucas however, never minded when Ness took him by the hand, always gleaning some twinge of inward pleasure at the touch, although he never would've said anything to the boy in the cap. He knew that Ness wasn't holding his hand _that way_. If anything could make Ness falter, Lucas thought, it would probably be something to do with that... but the blonde liked the unsinkable side of Ness, and thus kept his silence on the matter.

They walked, unhurriedly, through the village square. The denizens of Tazmily had come to see Ness as less of an oddity these days, and waved to the pair as they passed. The boy in the cap enthusiastically waved back, whereas the blonde shyly held up a hand in recognition. Two of these, some village girls around their age who paused as they walked past, whispered to each other and smiled at the pair of them, before giggling and walking off.

"Man, Lucas... for such a small town you have quite a selection of cute girls," Ness mused as his eyes followed the departure of the females who just left their vicinity.

"Yeah... I guess..." he replied, shuffling his shoes against the pavement uncomfortably as the black-haired boy looked curiously at him.

"I bet you had to beat them off with a stick before I showed up, right? Strapping young lad like yourself," He grinned widely, clapping him on the back.

"Eh?!" Lucas wasn't expecting that, and his wide eyed expression of shock caused Ness to start laughing.

"You don't have to look so suprised," the dark-haired boy teased, as they neared their destination.

The seaside portion of the village was a place two boys often visited together. Lucas hoped that revisiting the area where he washed up might help coax the cogs of his memory to begin turning, even if just a little bit. However, anything he may have remembered by now, he never made a mention of. Lucas didn't want to cause Ness any sadness by asking about it, in case the reply was unfavorable. He knew that Ness wouldn't keep something as monumental that from him, anyway.

They walked along the path past the sands, to where some cliffs overlooked the water. Here, the grass was lush and soft, and as he often did, Lucas kicked off his shoes and felt the tender blades tickle his feet. A gentle breeze rustled the greenery, warding off some of the heat of the mid-morning. Seating himself, the blonde glanced at Ness, who followed suit. Once on the ground, the black-haired boy flopped backwards, sprawling on his back with a soft sigh of contentment. As his cap was pressed against the ground, it shifted, now resting awkwardly on the crown of his head. This must have looked humorous, as he caught a glimpse of his companion gazing at him with a look of amusement, and Ness arched a brow. That was enough to send Lucas tottering backwards as well, due to the laughter that overtook him.

Ness huffed, feigning a wounded ego, before he rolled over onto his side, lifting up the hat and placing it on the blonde's head. The laughter immediately ceased as the cap partially obstructed his vision. Lucas was on his back now, so the hat didn't sit any better on him than its owner at this point. Ness, however, did not laugh, instead he once again rolled over onto his back, idly running his fingers through the mop of jet black hair, smoothing back that which now fell unconfined over his face. Lucas lifted the brim, which now covered one of his eyes, and stuck his tongue out at Ness.

"Better watch where you put that tongue, I'll bite it off," he grinned, snickering at the wide-eyed '_you wouldn't!_' look on his friend's face.

Ness gently snatched the hat back, and set it on the grass between them. He turned his head and gazed steadily at his companion, with an expression that held hints of curiosity, and confusion. Lucas would've felt like a bug under a microscope if anyone else had stared at him so intently... but with Ness, it felt for a moment that he was the only one that existed to the dark-haired boy. It was... kind of nice.

"Lucas?"

"Yeah..?"

"It feels like... there's something I'm on the verge of remembering, but it won't quite come to me."

"Really?" Lucas raised his brows.

"Yeah... whenever we flirt with the girls, I kind of get this brief image of someone."

Of course the 'we' part of that statement meant mostly Ness, with a silent, blushing Lucas in tow, but the blonde chose not to correct him.

"Who?"

"I dunno... I keep thinking that there's a girl I should remember," he exhaled softly, closing his eyes briefly in apparent concentration. "..but I can't place her face clearly."

The blonde boy absorbed this new information with mixed feelings. He was extremely thrilled that he was on the verge of remembering some important person in his life... but on the other hand, it just punctuated the fact for him that he and Ness could only ever be friends.

"I think maybe we were kinda like _this_," Ness said meaningfully, crossing his fingers tightly.

Lucas cringed a little at that... but not so much that Ness had noticed. Why wouldn't Ness have a girlfriend waiting for him back home? No one in the village could've been blind to the newcomer's handsome face, easygoing nature, and charismatic personality. The blonde was quite sure his was not the only heart Ness had managed to unknowingly steal during his time in Tazmily, just by being Ness.

"I'm glad you're finally remembering something."

Ness looked at him again to find Lucas smiling gently at him. The black-haired teen smiled back. Ness had noticed from day one that Lucas seemed to blush a lot more than he smiled, but it warmed his heart to see his friend caring about him regaining his memories. Other people may have found Ness' case too daunting, but his quiet friend never complained at all, only offered support. After all, here he was, revisiting the beach for what felt like the millionth time, hoping for Ness to glean some spark of memory there.

"I couldn't have done it without you."

Ness' smile evolved into a grin as the expected blush spread across his friend's face. The guy must turn pink from head to toe when people complimented him, he thought with amusement.

"I'm serious," Ness continued, "You've been right there with me ever since I showed up here... I don't think I would've been in a position to remember a whole lot if it hadn't been for you, I would've been too preoccupied about things like where I was going to sleep."

"...It's nothing," Lucas answered softly... if he could've blushed any darker, he would have. "You've done a lot for me, too..."

Ness looked mildly surprised at this. In a way, he could kind of see where Lucas was coming from. Ever since the strange boy had arrived in town, he'd supported him. Protecting him, standing up for him, you name it. In his eyes, Ness didn't see how these things were very much... they were just instincts to the dark-haired boy. To Lucas, however, they must've been a big deal. Trying to save Lucas some embarrassment, the dark-haired boy decided to change the subject a bit. Now Ness regarded Lucas thoughtfully, as though he was mulling something over that he wasn't sure he wanted to say just yet.

"Hey... Lucas? Have you ever... y'know... had a girlfriend?"

He watched the blonde, who was wiggling his toes nervously in the grass. He suddenly looked uncomfortable. Why did Ness have to ask that, of all things? Maybe he had been thinking about it because of his fleeting memory about the girl back home.

"N-No..."

"Huh? You're kidding, right? The girls are always smiling at you," said his friend, obviously baffled.

Lucas was pretty sure they were smiling at Ness, mostly, but he didn't say it.

"Maybe, but... I'm not good around girls," he mumbled, almost inaudible.

"Too shy?"

"Shy... clumsy... and I forget how to talk, somehow," he sighed, not really wanting to talk about it.

Ness looked sympathetic. He was comfortable enough with himself to acknowledge that his friend was a good-looking guy, albeit socially inept. He knew Lucas would be a great catch for any of the village girls, but he supposed the blonde teen had a hard time putting his best foot forward when it came to the opposite sex. Thus, Ness, the ever helpful friend, arrived at a brilliant idea, and he quickly sat up.

"Why don't you practice?"

"Practice?" Lucas blinked up at him in confusion.

"Yeah! Do it like this... pretend that I'm a girl," he pointed at his chest with his thumb, "and you talk to me. Practice your lines! ..or whatever."

Lucas was now sitting up as well. He swallowed hard.

"What lines?" he asked, wide-eyed.

"I don't know... tell me I'm cute or something." Ness flashed a grin, then gathered two fistfuls of his hair into pigtails, pursing his lips into an exaggerated pout. "You won't compliment this adorable girl?"

Both of them had a good laugh at this. After their sides had stopped shaking, Ness' expression turned more serious.

"For real, though, just practice talking to me as though you're getting to know me for the first time... with a girl, it can't be that much different, right? You just gotta get to know them, too."

"I already know all the girls in the village."

"You're missing the point... look, do you have feelings for anyone?"

Lucas stared at Ness, not saying a word. What could he say? He looked conflicted for a few moments, but then ultimately shook his head.

"No..."

The blonde was a poor liar, however... so easily flustered, and Ness read it like an open book. Twisting his mouth into a small frown, the black-haired boy sighed, scratching his head.

"Have it your way, Lucas. If you ever want to talk about it, I'm all ears."

Lucas folded his hands in his lap, and stared at the ground. Ness didn't sound angry, but... resigned. He felt like he had disappointed Ness by lying to him, but he did what he had to do to preserve their friendship... right? The awkward silence between the two of them was almost tangible.

Then, fate decided to provide a distraction. The breeze that had been ruffling their hair gently up until that point, picked up in a stronger gust, which lifted up the red and blue baseball cap that sat on the grass between the boys, and before Ness' hand could close around it, it escaped. His startled cry caused Lucas to look up, just in time to see the hat fly up, and over the edge of the cliff. Ness, who had scrambled to his feet, watched helplessly as it floated down and landed on the surface of the water several yards below.

Lucas stood, hesitantly approaching Ness, whose eyes were fixed on the hat that was slowly beginning to sink as it absorbed water.

"...Ness..?" the blonde timidly began. "Can't you go get it..?"

The dark-haired boy didn't move. Lucas peered up at his best friend, and immediately regretted his words. The expression Ness wore was a mixture of longing, and genuine fear. One of the only things Ness had left to remind him of his origins was sinking fast, but to reach it... he was staring down the cruel ocean that had nearly drowned him.

Taking a step back, Lucas bit his lip. Even Ness had a limit to how much confidence he could put forth... there was now proof enough of that. It was then that Lucas realized what he needed to do. Stepping up to the edge of the cliff, his eyes fixated on where the cap had sunk. His feet crunched against the rocky edge, and the sound caused Ness to look up at his friend.

"Lucas... what are you...?"

Blue eyes widened as he watched the blonde square his shoulders, taking a deep breath. He wasn't going to-- ...he was, Ness realized. There were rocks below, and it was a foolish to assume he'd miss them.

A hand darted out to catch his friend by the arm, but Ness was too late. Lucas had taken a dive.

"Lucas!"


	3. The Value of a Hat

_Author's Note: Moving right along, I'm enjoying this fic and I'm pleasantly surprised by how everything seems to be piecing itself together without much effort on my part. Nice when that happens._

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Three: The Value of a Hat

.

.

Ness stood awkwardly with his mouth agape. Lucas had slipped through his fingers by inches, and plummeted what must have been twenty feet into the water below. He didn't even know how deep that water was, and yet his friend had dived, head first. By some miracle, Lucas had gained enough momentum when he pushed himself off the face of the cliff that he missed the rocks immediately below but... he wasn't coming up. As each moment passed, Ness began to worry more.

"Lucas?!... Lucas!!" He called frantically, eyes roving for a glimpse of the blonde breaking the surface.

Gritting his teeth, his first instinct was to play hero, and dive in after him. His common sense, however, chastized him. Just because Lucas hadn't dashed himself on the rocks, did not mean the slightly taller and heavier Ness would be able to avoid them as well. Biting his lip, Ness racked his brain. He needed to do something, _now_.

All that was forgotten, though, because a moment later Lucas burst up, gasping, from the water. Ness' eyes lit up at the sight of his friend, obviously still alive and seemingly unhurt. His clothes were soaked, his hair, saturated, fell limp... but he was _okay_.

"Lucas, that was crazy!" The dark-haired boy's voice was thick with emotion. "...You could've gotten seriously hurt!"

Lucas, looking up at Ness, could only smile sheepishly. Then, looking as though he suddenly remembered something, he lifted his arm in the air.

"It was stuck on some coral... I had to spend a bit of time down there getting it out."

Thrusting his hand up for Ness to see, he showed that he was holding the hat.

Some minutes later, Ness was standing on the beach where the two boys had first met. As Lucas had jumped off the cliff there was no way to go back whence he came, and had to swim around. It wasn't far, and the blonde boy soon emerged from the water, shivering a bit as the breeze touched him. His wet clothing clung to him, his hair hung in damp tendrils over his forehead, and he was walking just a little bit strangely as wet sand squished between his toes. When his eyes fell upon Ness, however, he was all smiles.

"I brought your hat," the blonde said obviously, holding out the cap to its owner. "Sorry it's wet..."

Ness stared at Lucas. He strode slowly over to the blonde, and his fingers closed around the bill of the hat. His expression was unreadable, and Lucas was surprised as the other boy dropped the cap onto the ground as soon as he had it in his possession. Looking up at his friend in confusion, the blonde's breath suddenly rushed out of his lungs as he was pressed against the taller boy in a crushing hug.

"Of _course_ it's wet," Ness said softly, embracing him even tighter. "But you don't have to risk hurting yourself to get a stupid hat!"

The quiet boy's initial surprise quickly gave way to realizing he was being held by the person he was completely infatuated with. _Ness was holding him_. Tightly.

"Too tight," the blonde whispered breathlessly.

"Sorry..." Ness sighed, his hold relaxing enough for Lucas to breathe easier.

His face felt warm, however, as he noticed that Ness was not letting him go.

"Ness..?" he said uncertainly, hiding his face against his friend's shoulder.

"...Mm?"

He hadn't really been paying attention.

"I-I'm getting you all wet, too," he stammered, becoming increasingly flustered.

Ness did not say anything, but eventually released Lucas from his arms. Taking a step backwards from the boy who was now flushed bright pink, he folded his arms and regarded his friend for a moment.

"You know, Lucas... I don't get it."

Lucas tilted his head questioningly. He clearly didn't get it, either.

"I don't get why you seem to think I care about dumb stuff. Like this," he looked down, toe nudging the cap. "I don't care about a hat so much that I'd ever ask you to do something so... _insane_... to get it back. What do I care if you got me a little damp, either?"

He threw up his arms, at a loss.

"..It means a lot to you, so... I wanted to help," the blonde offered meekly, looking down at the sand.

Ness extended an arm and reached out for Lucas, but did not pull him into another hug. Instead, he put a hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, Lucas... I-- look at me," Ness punctuated his command by using his free hand to tilt the blonde's chin up to face him. "I love my hat, it does mean a lot to me, and I appreciate the thought. If I ever lost it though... I wouldn't die. But if I lost a friend like you, I just might."

Lucas swallowed hard. He found himself staring helplessly into Ness' eyes, unable to look away from their blue depths. Yet he heard his friend's words, and felt remorse for making him worry.

"I'm sorry, Ness..."

"I try to be strong so I can protect people I care about from bad things, even though right now I can't really remember who all of those people are... I know that sounds stupid. Things happen that you can't control," he looked meaningfully at Lucas. "Today, when I watched you dive in there, I felt so helpless. I don't like feeling helpless..."

The black-haired teen looked away then, turning from his friend and wrapping his arms about himself.

"I don't know how you've done it," Ness continued, staring off into space. "You've experienced a lot of loss and you can still smile sometimes. You're a better man than I am... to have kept moving forward. I couldn't do that."

Lucas didn't know what to say. Ness was speaking from the heart, possibly touching upon memories that he was still not fully aware of... or maybe truths about himself that he realized when all he had to go on was his own name. Whatever the case, the blonde's heart ached for him. Lucas didn't know how to feel about Ness coming down on himself like this. The blonde tentatively reached out and touched the other boy's arm.

As though waking from some kind of trance, Ness seemed slightly startled by the contact, but soon relaxed and smiled apologetically at his friend.

"Sorry for rambling. Let's get you home and into some dry clothes," he said cheerfully, slinging an arm around the blonde's shoulders.

It was quite a sight to the other villagers as the two of them made their way. Lucas was drenched... and barefoot. He was staring at the path ahead of him, not making eye contact with anyone. Ness was walking next to him, juggling what must have been the missing shoes, a baseball bat, and a hat in one arm. His other arm was wrapped protectively about the blonde, and he returned the villagers' stares with mild annoyance.

"What're you lookin' at?"

When they reached the fenced in front yard, Boney, who had returned to snooze in his dog house, only opened one eye in acknowledgement. The sight of his owner dripping wet didn't really surprise him. After all the two of them had seen together, he'd pretty much seen it all. Entering the house, they discovered that Flint, as usual, was not home. He had a tendency to leave early in the morning and stay out all day.

"At least we won't have to come up with a story for your dad," Ness mused, noticing that Lucas was shivering in his wet garments. "First things first, though. Clothes."

Ness' hand clamped around his shoulder, and nudged along behind him as though steering. Lucas did not complain, and obediently climbed the stairs in front of him. He felt tired, for some reason, and when Ness parked him in the center of his bedroom, he stood there like a lump. He barely noticed Ness hovering over him, until the black-haired boy started lifting his damp shirt up over his head.

Now completely alert, he gave a small gasp of surprise as he watched Ness fussily beginning to undress him. Blushing furiously, he gulped as the other boy dropped his shirt onto the floor.

"Ness.." He whimpered a little and pulled away, which caused his friend to become more persistent in his efforts.

"If you aren't going to do it, I am. You'll get sick."

By the time Ness was working on the zipper of his shorts, he began to panic. Pushing on Ness' arms, he gave an indignant sound.

"..I-I can undress myself!" Lucas was flustered and looking like he was about to cry.

"Okay, okay," Ness gave in, raising his hands in truce and backing away.

The dark-haired boy now turned his back and busied himself in Lucas' dresser, gathering dry clothes for his friend to put on. He located some clean shorts, and a t-shirt. Further rummaging in the drawers found a pair of boxers with the letters 'D.C.M.C.' on them. Shrugging, Ness added them to the pile.

Gathering his collection in his arms, he turned to hand them to Lucas, but stopped short. Lucas had not finished undressing, but rather stood there awkwardly in the exact position that Ness had left him... shorts unzipped and hanging haphazardly from his hips. At least his shirt was off, which allowed Ness to take note that his friend's blushing was not limited to his face. He arched a brow. The blonde looked like he was in shock, and about to die of embarrassment.

"Aw, come on, Lucas... it's not like you've got anything I haven't seen before... We're both guys."

Lucas only looked miserably at Ness.

"What if I got naked, too? Would that make you feel less embarrassed?" He grinned, dropping the armload of clothing onto the floor and lifting up the hem of his own shirt, exposing his navel. "Sympathetic nudity?"

His attempt to make Lucas laugh, or at least crack a smile, seemed to have fallen flat. Ness' own smile dissolved.

"Lucas?"

The blonde said nothing, but sank to his knees, his face conflicted with a million emotions at once. Ness could never know how self-consciousness mingled with curiosity, with a dash of hidden pleasure at the realization that Ness had offered to disrobe, and probably would've really done it, had he asked. Still wide-eyed and red faced, he was startled a bit when Ness knelt down in front of him. A soothing hand was placed on the blonde's shoulder, and Lucas found himself searching Ness' face for some salvation from his current barrage of emotions.

There was no more need to talk. Ness gathered his friend into his arms. Where the first embrace that day had been panicked and desperate, the second one was comforting and tender. Just Ness' arms around him, and gently rubbing his back. Lucas felt a chill down his spine at the touch, and as expected, the usual twinge of energy... although this time, he did not appear to be the only one to feel it. Ness paused.

"..What was that?"

"What was what?" Lucas asked cautiously, wanting to be sure.

"That feeling... it was like... a current of electricity."

"...I didn't know you could feel it too," the blonde murmured softly.

"Only just now... when I did this..."

His fingers again traced gently along Lucas' spine, and he shivered.

"...I feel it all the time," the blonde hid his face against his friend's shoulder. "Everytime we touch."

"What is it?"

"I-I'm not sure," Lucas replied truthfully, "but I have an idea..."

"Shoot."

"...I think we're feeling PSI energy."

"PSI?"

"Psionic. Powers of the mind."

Ness' hand stopped its gentle ministration and came to a rest on the small of the blonde's back as he considered his words.

"That's how you saved me on the beach."

It wasn't a question, but a realization.

"Yeah... it was..."

"So you have... special powers?"

"I guess I do."

Lucas swallowed hard. Was Ness going to laugh? Was he going to say he was making it up? Ness, however, did neither. There was something else weighing on his mind.

"Why do you feel it when you and I touch?"

"I dunno... maybe you have PSI powers too."

"Me? That's..." Ness then trailed off, uncertainly.

_Impossible_, is what he wanted to say. There was something, though. Something about this talk about PSI that struck a chord deep within. Suddenly, it didn't seem like it was impossible. He knew Lucas was right.

"I can use PSI..." Ness sounded like a fog was dissipating from his mind.

"I think that's why we feel that... thing," the blonde mumbled.

There was silence for a few moments. Lucas became all too aware that Ness was still holding him. His skin felt feverish, like he would burn away at his touch... but in such a good way. His heart was pounding, and he prayed Ness could not feel it. He didn't know what he would say if his friend asked about it. Fortunately, he did not.

Ness, for his part, was completely absorbed in his thoughts. Bits of memory were trickling back to him, involving his experience with using PSI. Not much, but enough to fill his heart with hope of recovering the rest.

"Lucas?" His voice was quivering with excitement, eager to share his discovery with his friend.

"Yeah...?" The blonde looked up with curiosity at the black-haired boy.

"I'm remembering some more... about PSI. I can't believe it," Ness smiled down at Lucas. "You seem to be a key factor to me remembering stuff."

"Not really... you've been remembering this stuff on your own, I think."

"Don't be so modest, you've put forth so much effort to help me remember stuff. What can I do to return the favor? Name it." Ness grinned, "Although I think I will quite literally owe you my life by the time I remember everything."

Lucas could not name it. The one thing he wanted from Ness was something he had promised himself not to talk about... but it was so hard. Here, in the arms of the one he loved. He could feel his resolve weakening, but almost wished it would shatter, so he might pour his heart out. Ness' face was mere inches from his own, now he could see him up close and personal, and he admired all the things he secretly coveted while Ness slept at night. The jet-black hair, that hung so adorably over his forehead. His smile, complete with full lips that he wished he could...

Just one touch. One taste.

Lucas had told himself all this time that he couldn't have it. Now, he couldn't _resist_ it. He wanted to have it. _Needed_ to have it. Needed that one taste.

"Lucas... what...?" Ness breathed in confusion as the timid blonde placed both hands on his cheeks and leaned closer.

Lucas did not answer, and silenced further questions by pressing his lips to Ness'.

A wave of psionic energy.

It was electrifying.


	4. A Taste of Apples

_Author's Note: This chapter contains sexual implications. You have been warned. I'm also going to up the rating for safety. I don't think it's that graphic, but I don't want to take any chances._

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Four: A Taste of Apples

.

.

Soft. Warm. Ness' lips were everything Lucas had imagined and more. For a few seconds of heaven, the shy boy had sacrificed his well-hidden secret with a forbidden act. Easily one of the boldest things Lucas had ever done in his seventeen years. It was incredibly brief, but the damage had been done.

When the blonde ultimately sat back on his heels, he found that Ness hadn't budged an inch. Anxiously forcing his eyes to look up at his face, Lucas found an expression he couldn't identify. Ness' eyes looked vacant, his mouth hung slightly agape. Flushing scarlet, it gradually began to sink into Lucas' mind... the gravity of what he had done.

Ness' eyes gradually came to look at the blonde's face. Lucas bit his lower lip. He could still taste Ness there. Squaring his jaw, the black-haired boy regarded him silently for a few moments before slipping his arms off of Lucas' body and resting his hands on his knees. That was when Lucas became afraid. He wanted to get out of there, so Ness wouldn't be looking like that at him any longer.

Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but he had no idea what he could say at this point. He wanted to cry. Tears for unrequited love, and tears for his own stupidity. Shakily getting to his feet, he looked away from Ness and began to unsteadily move towards the door like one condemned, like he was being marched off to his own execution.

As he was about to pass by where Ness still knelt on the floor, his progress was stopped by his hand catching his wrist. He looked down at Ness in alarm, the black-haired boy looking up at him with an unreadable expression. A penatrating gaze that Lucas found he couldn't look away from, Ness stared him down for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the dark-haired boy let out a soft sigh.

"Now I know why you didn't want to talk about it before..."

"...I-I'm sorry, Ness..."

He had ruined everything. Things couldn't be the same anymore and it was all his fault. Ness' eyes softened slightly, and he let go of Lucas' wrist.

"For what?"

"...F-For changing everything..."

Ness had risen to his feet. Brushing off his shorts, he cleared his throat.

"Are you so afraid of everything changing?"

"What...?"

"What did you think I'd do?" Ness took a step closer to the other boy.

"...I don't know!" Lucas choked back a sob, and stared at the floor... he was so close to crying. "I'm just s-scared..."

Ness cupped his chin, forcing Lucas to look him in the eye. He felt frozen to the spot, like a deer caught staring into the headlights of an oncoming car.

"Scared of what, Lucas?"

"...Of losing you... as a friend..." he whispered meekly.

Ness regarded the blonde thoughtfully for a moment, then leaned in close.

"Not gonna happen."

Ness kissed Lucas. A firm touch of lips, not hesitant and fleeting like the first... the reality of which became sealed for the blonde by the arm that curled around his waist. Ness' open palm pressed insistently on the small of his back, urging him closer. Lucas exhaled quickly as a chill ran up his spine, and the other boy took the opportunity to flick his tongue inside his mouth briefly, teasingly. Pulling away then, Ness couldn't help but grin at the surprised expression written all over his friend's face. As quickly as he had ensnared the blonde, he now dropped his hands to his sides.

"So... are we even now?"

Lucas stared dumbly at Ness for a moment, before his expression became more contemplative. Tentatively, Lucas lifted his arms and reached towards Ness, fingers closing around the edge of the striped shirt.

"No," he said quietly, lifting the article of clothing over his head and tugging it off.

Ness did not resist. Letting the shirt fall to the floor, the blonde drank in the sight of the topless Ness. He looked so good, Lucas could hardly breathe. Gaze trailed slowly upwards from his navel, eventually to rest on the Ness' face. His visage held a sense of uncertainty, and his cheeks were slightly flushed. Nonetheless, a look of curiosity shone from his blue eyes as he watched the blonde.

"Lucas... I--" Ness was hesitant, feeling his usual confidence crumbling away under the scrutiny. "...Is this what you really want?"

Lucas could only look at Ness with eyes that spoke of longing in volumes. The dark-haired boy felt his pulse quicken. Had anyone ever looked at him with such need before? He met his friend's gaze. Lucas had come to mean so much to him during his time in Tazmily. It felt as though they had known one another for centuries. His fingers now lifted and lightly stroked the blonde's cheek. His skin was soft, flawless. Lucas responded to the tender touch with a soft sigh. Ness liked it.

Lucas wanted him now, more than he'd ever wanted anything. Ness could feel it radiating from him. The carefully hidden emotions were now unleashed, and Ness found he could sense each and every one when he touched the blonde. Ness admired the courage that he'd shown to cross that boundary in the first place. He had always known Lucas had depths of his character that he never showed, but there were times when they shone through... and Ness treasured them. He smiled.

"Me too."

Ness softly brushed his lips against the blonde's, savoring their taste. A tangy sweetness, almost like he had just bitten his apple from that morning. Lucas responded by twining his arms around the taller boy's neck, a soft exhale parting his lips. Ness took this opportunity to deepen their kiss, tongue softly exploring the blonde's mouth and gently encouraging him to do the same.

Lucas, although inexperienced, was a fast learner. Soon enough the two boys were engaged in a gentle tussle of lips and tongue. Wandering hands were allowed to explore, palms smoothing over exposed skin. The shy blonde indulged his fingers by running them gently through the jet-black hair of his companion, who gave a soft purring sound at the touch.

Eventually breaking away for air, the boys gazed silently at each other. Both were panting softly, flushed skin feeling hot. Wrapping his arms around the blonde's waist, Ness nudged him backwards a few steps to his bed. Lucas trusted him completely, laying back with with such a loving expression that Ness could've eaten him up. Leaning down, the dark haired boy kissed Lucas on his belly button, and he couldn't help but grin at the quivering of his stomach.

"Ticklish there?"

"...A little..."

"How about here?" Ness whispered huskily, kissing him just above his navel. "...Or here?"

Ness began to trail soft, wet kisses up his stomach. Lucas did not answer, but gasped each time the heated lips touched his skin. Ness took this as a green light to climb up onto the bed with him, and he straddled the blonde. Grinning down at him, Ness experimentally pushed himself against Lucas in a gentle grind. The blonde's response was amazing, a distinct moan, body instinctively arching upwards to greet him. A firm pressure between their bodies caused both boys to groan in pleasure, and Ness captured Lucas' mouth again. Hungry kisses demonstrated a need they both felt, the psionic energy generating between them expressing to the other a mutual desire.

Ness pressed his mouth against Lucas' neck, enticing more of the soft cries that made him feel even hotter. Suckling with determination, his breath hissed out sharply against the flesh as the blonde boldly pushed himself upwards against him. Nipping at the tender skin in response, Ness let his hips thrust sharply against the blonde's. He relished the way Lucas whimpered at the friction, the intense pressure of their exchanged pushing, the denim of their shorts rubbing together in pleasurable torture.

Unrestrained moans tore from the throats of both boys as they rode out their desire with instinctive movements of their hips. Without either being asked, they matched pace perfectly, gradually becoming faster. Skin becoming slick with sweat, their bare chests slid against one another. Lucas felt as though he would explode at any second, the buildup was unbearable. Fingertips digging into Ness' back, the blonde boy clung to him as best he could. Ness gripped onto the Lucas' hips with his legs, clamping down to hold his position.

Panting with exertion, the black-haired teen felt himself about to be flung past the point of no return. Gazing down at Lucas, Ness could feel that he was right there with him. A dreamy look swam in the blonde boy's eyes... he wanted to take that plunge together. When he felt he could take no more, Ness held the blonde's face with both hands, mashing his lips down upon his, muffling a loud moan from Lucas. Groaning, Ness screwed his eyes shut as an intense wave of pleasure jolted his entire body.

For a few moments, neither of them moved. The only sound to be heard was the labored breathing from each boy. They looked at each other, their minds still hazy. Lucas brought his fingers up to caress the black-haired boy's cheek. A soft smile touched his lips, and Ness returned it, gently nuzzling into his hand.

"Still afraid of changing everything?"

"Not anymore..."

"I'm proud of you." Ness leaned down and gently kissed Lucas. "If you hadn't started this, I might have had to take charge."

The dark-haired boy winked, grinning at the baffled expression on the blonde's face. _He couldn't have known before... could he?_

"Relax," Ness continued, as though reading his mind, which at this point was entirely possible. "I'm just relieved you decided to... uh... share who your crush was. You know you can tell me anything... right?"

"Yeah," Lucas said softly. "Sorry for hiding things from you."

"It's okay. I understand now why you did," Ness answered, easing himself off of the blonde and sitting on the bed next to him.

Lucas sat up as well, and Ness shifted to make more room for him. Ness paused after he moved a few inches, an odd expression on his face.

"Ness..?" Lucas tilted his head curiously.

"Uh..." Ness sat awkwardly, a tinge of pink staining his cheeks. "Do your pants feel kinda..."

"What? What do you--" Lucas broke off and looked down at himself, realizing what he was talking about.

"...Messy..."

"Y-Yeah..."

Ness could only smile sheepishly and scratch the back of his head.

"I guess we should both change our clothes now, huh?"

Both boys blushed.


	5. Homesick

_Author's Notes: This chapter also contains some sexual implications. I also feel like a big, fat jerk for writing this chapter. Why must I torture Lucas so? *sigh*_

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Five: Homesick

.

.

It was hard for either of them to imagine how they could become even closer... until that first kiss. From that day onward, something had awakened in each boy that could not be explained by either of them... but it didn't have to be.

"Still with me, Lucas?"

"...Huh?" Lucas snapped his head up, clearly distracted.

The day's travels had led them into the Sunshine Forest, a place they liked to visit when Ness practiced his re-emerging psychic abilities. It was somewhere they could generally find solitude, away from the eyes of well-meaning villagers. Some things were just better left unsaid. Discussion about PSI with them was one of those things.

"I was going to ask you to show me a PSI Shield again, but you just seemed to stare off into space. What are you thinking about, anyway?" Ness cocked his head curiously.

In truth, he'd been thinking about several things. The last several days had seemed to pass in a blur. Lucas was still recovering from the whiplash. Before he could put together a response, Ness had lifted a hand, gently placing a palm against his cheek. Ness' face was passive, and the intensity of his gaze seemed to penetrate his very soul, but Lucas was open to it. A glimmer of recognition flashed in the dark-haired boy's eyes, and he withdrew his hand.

"You're still surprised at yourself for kissing me in the first place," Ness' lips curved slightly in amusement. "Also wondering what might happen later today... and what you're hoping will happen."

An uncanny ability to sense the other's thoughts and emotions had developed, a convergence of two powerful psychic forces manifesting into extra-sensory perception that only seemed to work between the two of them. This was not the first time it happened, but the suggestion in his voice caused Lucas to blush. He could not deny he had been daydreaming a little. The black-haired teen looked rather smug, but Lucas couldn't be irritated at being read so quickly, espcially when Ness leaned in close. Blue eyes instinctively fluttered shut as their lips touched tenderly.

"Hey..." The blonde pouted defiantly when they broke. "You're thinking about the same thing as me."

"I blame you for that." Ness grinned.

As the days passed, it became even more evident that Ness was regaining control over his PSI. It wasn't long before he demonstrated abilities that easily matched the blonde's, if not surpassed them. Not only that, but more fragments of his memory began piecing themselves together like a jigsaw puzzle. Days were spent with Ness excitedly sharing new things as he was able to recall them, and together they began to unravel the mystery of his origin.

Ness was apparently from a place called Onett, the description of which eerily reminded Lucas of Tazmily's transformation by the Pigmask Army years ago. As they walked through the village now, however, Lucas was always inwardly relieved that it had returned to the simplistic, rustic village it had always been before then. It felt more like home that way.

No matter how much Lucas felt at home, however, it began to sink in that Ness wasn't feeling quite so at ease with existence in Tazmily anymore. Whenever he talked about Onett, discussing stores he remembered, the layout of places he knew, and his supportive younger sister, Lucas found it heartbreaking just to look into his eyes. A restlessness, tinged with a sadness that seemed all but inconsolable. These were the times that words failed Lucas, and all he could do was gather Ness into his arms.

Nights were always spent together, the cot in the corner of the bedroom long forgotten. Huddled comfortably into Lucas' bed, they would lay, facing each other, whispering about whatever came to mind long after Flint had gone to sleep, but sometimes they didn't even have to say anything to get the point across. Lucas reveled in the sensation of being able to feel another person so completely, unspoken communication providing an entirely new level of intimacy. It even managed to surpass the unquestionable connection between twins, as much as Lucas was hesitant to admit it to himself.

"You miss him," Ness smoothed the blonde hair away from his forehead.

"Always..." he whispered.

"What was Claus like?"

"Not like me at all," Lucas smiled wistfully. "Outgoing... friendly... fearless."

"But twins... so he couldn't be _completely_ unlike you," Ness mused.

"Not identical," Lucas said, aware that wasn't what Ness had meant. "He was all the things I couldn't muster inside myself... but he was still supportive of me. And protective..."

"You sure you aren't talking about me?" Ness teased gently, smiling.

"I really _hope_ I'm not related to you," Lucas blurted out, and they both muffled their laughter in the pillows.

They eventually settled into a comfortable silence, gazing at each other, idle thoughts brushing together. Lucas scooted closer to Ness, settling his cheek softly against the other boy's chest. There, he could hear the steady beating of his heart, and he sighed contentedly as Ness' fingers stroked the golden strands of his hair. Ness' thoughts were all over the place now, his attention to his immediate surroundings appearing half-hearted at best. Lucas caught glimpses of his mind... a white house with a picket fence, and a woman with blonde hair, smiling...

"I miss my mom." Ness broke the silence before he could ask.

"The blonde lady?"

"Yeah."

"What's she like?"

"Kind... understanding. She was always telling me how special I was."

Lucas nuzzled closer to the thin fabric of the other boy's pajamas. He didn't like the way Ness described his mother in the past-tense. It felt too familiar.

"She's right," Lucas said softly. "You are special."

He could almost feel Ness flush slightly at the compliment.

"She would make me steak when I'd go home..." he went on quietly. "It's my favorite... I haven't had any since..."

Ness didn't finish. He didn't have to. Lucas lifted his head to peer at his companion's face. His heart ached at the pained expression written across his features. He was homesick, and Lucas could feel the way it was flooding into almost every one of his thoughts. He leaned over and pressed his lips softly to Ness' cheek. This seemed to rouse him out of reverie somewhat. His eyes met the blonde's and he smiled once again, though not with the enthusiasm Lucas was used to.

The blonde-haired teen regarded Ness, wondering how to make him feel better. Ness looked at him, almost pleadingly, wishing he could think of something. Lucas looked back at Ness with eyes full of love, and genuine concern. It turned his whole world upside-down to see Ness unhappy. It was killing him, and a single thought was all he could offer.

_At least you have me_...

Ness' eyes flickered with affection for Lucas, taking immense comfort from this, even if he was unable to completely control his increasing melancholy. Lucas scrambled to his hands and knees, craning his neck to kiss his lips softly. It was all he could come up with to help him forget his troubles, if just for a little while. The dark-haired boy's eyes fell to a close, moving his lips in just the right way, by now well-practiced at kissing the blonde. Ness' taste was as invigorating as ever, and Lucas found himself leaning in for another sample... and another. His body practically moved of its own accord, shifting his position so that he crouched over Ness, his kisses becoming increasingly fervent. Neither of them were accustomed to Lucas initiating such things, but Ness was never one to disappoint, being the sport that he was, and his intensity rose to match.

Once they came up for air, Ness, intrigued by this more daring side of Lucas, looked hungrily at the blonde, his smile compelling. Rolling over, he settled onto his back, gazing up at Lucas, his eyes challenging him to continue. Now Lucas felt uncertain... he'd never taken charge like this before. Ness, sensing his hesitation, decided to appeal to him on a more base level. Hands slid down the blonde's back, reaching around to cup his backside. Giving an insistent squeeze, Ness gave him a stare that said everything about what he wanted, and when he wanted it.

Lucas' blood was now boiling. A look of awe and lust graced his features, and the dark-haired boy looked smug, as if that was his intention the whole time. Taking his bait, Lucas wiped that smile off his face by kissing him hard, nipping at the fullness of his lower lip. Attention lowered to his neck, where Lucas proceeded to kiss eagerly, which gave way to soft bites. A surprised gasp; Ness was apparently receiving a bit more than he bargained for. Fingers fumbled with the buttons on Ness' pajama top, and once open, it was quickly pulled apart.

Lucas loved the way the other boy's face flushed, looking up at him with expectant, trusting eyes. It was impossible to resist the temptation to taste more of him, and his tongue trailed slowly down the center of his torso, causing a shiver. He couldn't get enough of the salt on his skin, licking in slow swirls around his navel.

"You taste so good..." Lucas murmured, his words slightly muffled against his belly.

Ness' breath only quickened in response, eyes squeezing shut, restless fingers curling into the blanket beneath him. His reaction only made Lucas more persistent in his efforts, hands sliding smoothly up his hips and holding him there, while he suckled suggestively on his lower belly. A shaky moan quivered his stomach, the proximity to _other_ parts of his body was driving Ness crazy. His mind swirled in a fog, colors and shapes he couldn't identify at first. That was when he saw it, behind his closed eyes. A figure standing there, a blur of pink. Slowly, it came into focus, and he identified it as a female with long hair. Blonde hair, pulled back with a scarlet ribbon. Her back was to him, but a twinge of familiarity visited Ness.

Lucas, mind still hazy with desire, did not pick up on the feeling from the dark-haired boy. It wasn't until Ness saw her turn to him, her eyes a pale shade of blue. She smiled at him. The jolt of recognition that hit him was so powerful his body jerked, eyes snapping open. He sat up quickly, inadvertently knocking Lucas off of him.

"P-Paula!" Ness choked out, startled.

Breathing erratically, Ness looked wild-eyed down at Lucas. The blonde was returning his gaze with a look of pure shock, looking rather disheveled after having tumbled onto the other side of the mattress. Then his face flushed and he bit his lip, looking away. Lucas had picked up on the imagery now, and immediately understood the importance of this particular memory returning. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to feel any sort of joy about it.

Ness regained some form of composure after a few moments. He cleared his throat awkwardly, as it became apparent how thoroughly he killed the mood. Lucas still wasn't looking at him, and his brow furrowed. His thoughts now became scattered and impossible for even himself to piece together.

"Lucas... I..." He trailed off, not really knowing what to say.

A pause.

"She's very pretty."

Ness didn't have to be psychic to detect Lucas' melancholy as he said those words. Hesitantly reaching for Lucas, his fingertips barely brushed his cheek. It was wet. When he finally looked at Ness, the tears silently rolling down his cheeks became visible. He had never witnessed Lucas crying before. Ness felt like someone stabbed him, looking at those eyes. Inconsolable... with a touch of what might have been jealousy. Sighing heavily, Lucas wiped his tears onto his sleeve. Shaking his head, he sat up, and looked meaningfully at Ness.

"I kinda knew that it would come up eventually... but I still hoped it wouldn't..."

"What..?"

"I had a feeling... there was someone special waiting for you back home." He smiled now, but with sadness. "Deep down, I knew you would eventually remember her... and I admit I was dreading it."

Ness could see it now. The sleepless nights, hours of longing Lucas endured, right up until the heart-stopping moment their lips had first met. The underlying fear, in spite of the tide turning in his favor, of ending up in competition with a person he didn't even know. A girl who, to Lucas, must have been impossibly perfect to deserve someone like Ness. How he felt he could never compare with that.

The blonde inhaled quickly as Ness' hands cradled his face. The touch felt all the more precious after the dark-haired boy's revelation, somehow. Ness' eyes swam with a myriad of emotions... affection... love... regret... apology. He bent forward, and Lucas willingly leaned towards him as their lips met. Ness could not deny how much he loved the blonde haired boy, for everything he was, and everything he could see him becoming. It was unsettling now, having realized that he had felt as strongly for another. But they both found some comfort when he held Lucas close.

Nuzzling into the fine, golden strands of his hair, Ness inhaled deeply. The familiar scent made him relax, and he planted a kiss on the top of his head. He realized now that no matter how much he missed Onett, and who was waiting for him there... he couldn't ignore that there was someone right here that needed him, too. Someone right in front of his eyes. After all, he wasn't in Onett anymore. He was here, with Lucas. He sighed softly as Lucas draped his arms loosely over his shoulders, snuggling into his chest.

Ness held him until they fell asleep.


	6. Dreams, Reality, Realizations

_Author's Notes: Writing this chapter made me realize how difficult I find it to flesh out story through means of wordless communication. I felt summarization was best, but hopefully it doesn't sound too condensed. Oh well. I tried. Enjoy!_

_EDIT: I rewrote the last paragraph because it sounded so fake and abrupt to me, I think it sounds a bit more natural now. Also corrected what I thought was a horrible flaw in the continuity from the last chapter to this one, so I fixed that too... but nothing major.  
_

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.  
Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Six: Dreams, Reality, Realizations

.

.

Lucas was standing on a paved road in a town he didn't recognize. A sleepy suburb, with picturesque houses sitting on perfectly manicured lawns. His eyes scanned the area for someone... anyone... perhaps he could ask about where he was. But no one was around. Sighing, he scratched the back of his head, puzzled as to how he got there. His gaze eventually came to rest on the one building that stood out from the others on the quiet street. It didn't look terribly different from the other houses that lined up on either side of it, but it was bigger. More rectangular than square like the rest. There was a large sign attached to the roof, indicating a business resided within its walls.

"Polestar Preschool..." Lucas read it in a quiet voice, which sounded deafening as it broke the silence.

"Are you lost, Lucas?"

The voice came suddenly from behind him, and he whirled around in surprise to face its owner. No one was there. Blue eyes narrowed, wondering if someone was playing some cruel trick on him while he was disoriented.

"Who's there?" He demanded, eyes flitting to and fro nervously.

The voice didn't reply... instead, he heard a giggle.

"A friend you haven't met," the voice answered, this time from the other side.

Turning again, he finally saw her. His jaw involuntarily dropped as he recognized the girl he'd seen in Ness' memories. She was devastatingly beautiful, moreso than he'd had time to notice during the brief glimpse into his mind. An angelic face framed by long locks of pale gold, she was draped in immaculate pink satin and white lace. From her, he felt the distinct aura of another PSI user. Her eyes were like looking into a mirror, they were the same pale shade of blue as his own, and she looked at him with interest. Lucas could feel warmth rushing to his face as she smiled gently.

Lowering his eyes shyly in the presence of such a pretty girl, he now saw what she was carrying. In her arms, she was holding a gently worn brown teddy bear. A girl her age holding such a juvenile toy might look silly, but it somehow suited her. She seemed to notice what he was looking at, and her smile widened.

"Oh, this? Ness bought it for me..." She seemed to hold it a little closer.

"You're Paula..." He dared to look at her face again.

"Yes, that's right. Welcome to Twoson." Her voice was cheerful, seemingly nonchalant about this paradoxical meeting.

"Twoson?"

"Yes, Twoson. You know, between Onett and Threed." Her brows raised as though it was obvious.

He really didn't know that at all, but the mention of Onett snared his attention. Now that she mentioned it, the layout of the street was not very different from some of the places Ness had described to him.

"How did I get here?" Lucas wondered, brow furrowing in confusion.

"I guess you're dreaming."

"Huh?"

Paula giggled again, a soft, bubbly laugh that was pleasing to the ear. Looking into her eyes, Lucas could tell she was being completely serious. He could believe it. A nervous quivering disturbed his stomach then, now afraid she would be able to to know things about him in regards to Ness. He did not want to face a woman's wrath for more or less stealing her boyfriend.

"I want to thank you... for taking care of Ness. He's very far from home right now. I'm glad he found a friend."

She looked at him meaningfully, and her tone was sincere. Lucas relaxed a little. He supposed she _didn't_ have the ability to read his thoughts the way Ness could. Perhaps because they were so unfamiliar to one another, since he couldn't read Paula either.

"He needed one, I found him nearly dead," he admitted honestly.

Her smile faded then. She shook her head, bouncing the cornsilk waves of her hair slightly.

"I told him it was risky..."

"What was risky?"

"The new PSI," she sighed.

"New PSI?" he echoed, perplexed.

"PK Teleport Ω...He volunteered to be the first to try, and we all thought it was dangerous. No one was quite sure how it worked... or where it sent you. I tried to convince him not to do it, but he just smiled that completely confident smile of his, and told me that he would be fine." She looked down at the stuffed toy in her arms and hugged it even tighter. "I never could say no him when he looked so sure of himself... maybe that's my fault."

Lucas looked on in awe, he'd never heard of a psionic ability like that. His chest felt somehow tighter as she spoke, he was clearly not the only one to be drawn in by that smile. Everything about Paula now spoke volumes about how much she was in love with the dark-haired boy. The longing in her eyes, the worry in her voice, the way she clutched the bear to her chest as though it was a surrogate for the one she really wanted to hold. Had Lucas looked that way as he hugged his pillow on those sleepless nights of pining? Yet, in spite of his apparent competition with her, he couldn't bring himself to dislike Paula. In some ways, she reminded him a lot of himself.

"...But he's okay now... Ness _is_ fine," Lucas found himself trying to console her in spite of himself, he didn't want to see a girl begin to cry.

Looking up at him now, she seemed relieved once he tied the words 'Ness' and 'fine' together for her.

"I'm glad. I care a lot about him and I don't want him to be hurt..." Her cheeks flushed beautifully.

"I care about him, too. I won't let anything bad happen to him," he assured her with surprising confidence.

She brightened considerably then, her smile returning.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Thank you, Lucas. It's too bad I don't exist anymore in your world... it would have been nice to meet you for real. But that's the way it's meant to be."

_Don't exist anymore in your world_...

"What?!" He exclaimed, his confusion evident. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh Lucas, I'm so sorry... I can't explain now. It's time for you to go..."

"What?! No!! You have to tell me!" Lucas cried out desperately, reaching out towards her.

"Tell you what?" A voice spoke softly from near his ear.

His eyes snapped open. He was not in Twoson, but in his own bed. It was still dark outside. The voice that addressed him was not Paula's, but belonged to Ness, whose arms were still wrapped around his waist. Lucas' arm was extended awkwardly over the other boy's shoulder as though trying to touch something that wasn't really there, and he let it drop with a heavy sigh.

"S-Sorry... I had a really weird dream."

"About Paula?"

Lucas froze. Of course Ness would know that.

"Yes..."

"I did too."

"Oh, really?" Lucas offered lamely, unable to think of something else to say.

"She told me I'd made a mistake by using the forbidden PSI, but she forgave me. She also said she was hoping I'd come home soon..."

"She told me about the PSI..."

"Yeah. I was overconfident..." Ness trailed off.

"S-She also told me... that she didn't exist anymore in this world..." Lucas stammered, unable to get the words out easily.

Ness didn't answer for a long time. He sighed softly resting his face against Lucas' hair. A feeling of uncertainty emanated from him that matched Lucas'.

"I guess that means... I don't either."

Lucas cringed as Ness voiced the underlying association he didn't want to address. He swallowed hard. His dream, and this whole conversation was becoming totally surreal.

"So you're... from the past?" He whispered, his voice childlike, fragile.

"...I suppose that must be the case," Ness admitted hesitantly.

Ness was very much alive and in the flesh here, and the very idea of him being long dead in his own niche of reality was more than Lucas wanted to think about. The blonde boy's arms wrapped around him, almost possessively, and held him close, almost like he was that brown bear from his dream. It was there, while Ness lay in Lucas' arms, that more of his memories began to connect. The two of them wordlessly observed visions of a great battle, and someone... who was once a friend to the dark-haired boy, betraying him and disappearing into time and space, an impossibility under normal circumstances.

Lucas knew that face... younger, but still the same person. He was sure of it, as they revisited his tyranny in the Nowhere Islands. Ness now knew what had become of the chubby, boisterous boy that once used to be his next-door neighbor and playmate, and Lucas could see the sadness flicker in his eyes. He caressed the black-haired boy's cheek sympathetically. Lucas understood what it felt like when someone you cared about turned on you. Ness' thoughts took a turn towards more recent events... the image of Paula's pleading to resist the temptation of trying the teleportation, and the wavering of reality around him as he did it anyway. The boys now watched, almost as though it were a movie shot in first-person view, a glimpse of blue, cloudless sky and a plunge into the ocean. What seemed like endless treading of the water gave way to weariness... and then, blackness.

PK Teleport Ω... the forbidden ability was only able to be performed by those with the strongest psionic potential. Although extremely gifted, Ness had been unable to control its power. It created the ability to bend reality into another location and era, something that was usually impossible for a living being. Something only Porky's alien machine was able to mimic, and survive. Until the discovery of that PSI, which was first believed to have existed by Dr. Andonuts, another figure the boys were amazed to discover they both knew. He had vanished before his theories had been able to be tested, but now it had all become clear.

The pair of them by now had spent hours exchanging thoughts and knowledge. The communication by means of telepathy was an exhausting process, and eventually both boys became too tired to continue. Lucas pressed his lips to Ness' forehead, his eyes heavy. Ness sighed, in equal parts contentment and relief. He was glad Lucas was here with him, to sort through it all. They both soon fell into deep slumber in spite of the telling discoveries, one after the other. One thing was certain. There would be much to talk about in the morning.


	7. More Than Memories

_Author's Notes: Sorry this took so long to post, I was trying to pick up some emotional slack from the end of the last chapter. I decided I didn't know how to tweak that further in a way that looked good, so I'm hoping to turn things back in the right direction starting here. I also tried a different way of indicating a flashback, which I hope isn't too confusing. Enjoy._

_All characters and places in this work are owned by Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Seven: More Than Memories

.

.

Ness opened his eyes reluctantly, unable to keep from rousing now that the room was beginning to become lighter. His gaze flicked to the window and the gradually brightening sky, then down to the other boy. He was still sleeping peacefully, his arms wrapped around Ness' torso in a loose embrace. A small smile touched the dark-haired boy's lips, marveling at how Lucas never let go. Not once, since they'd started sharing a bed. His heart swelled with deep adoration for the soft-spoken blonde, but as the night's telepathic journey revisited him, his smile dissolved.

_What am I supposed to do now?_

With a sigh, he extricated himself from Lucas' arms, being extremely careful not to disturb his slumber. If Ness had too much on his mind to go back to sleep, there was no reason to wake him with it, too. Quietly padding barefoot across the wooden floor, he shrugged off his pajama top, already unbuttoned the previous night, courtesy of Lucas. Pulling his striped shirt over his head, he began to contemplate everything he'd seen and learned in the last twenty-four hours. He was so deeply immersed in his thoughts that the act of getting dressed happened out of habit, almost mechanically, rather than consciously.

Maybe he shouldn't have burdened Lucas with any of it, even while awake. Not that he ever asked him to carry any of the load. Lucas could not help but worry about Ness, and by now the black-haired boy realized that his actions were driven purely out of love. Pulling his hat on as a finishing touch, he looked to where the blonde boy still slept in his bed. Eyes softening as he gazed at Lucas, Ness saw how untroubled he seemed when he slept. The one time he didn't seem to worry so much. He quietly crossed the room, pulling the the quilt at the foot of the bed over Lucas to keep him warm, a meager replacement for Ness' body heat.

He sighed again, not quite knowing what to do with himself now. Leaning down, he tentatively kissed the other boy's forehead. Lucas murmured contentedly, but remained asleep as Ness turned and exited the room. Tiptoeing down the stairs, he paused at the kitchen table. The bowl of fruit there held no interest, despite the gnawing in his stomach. Perhaps if a steak had been sitting there instead of apples... or maybe it wasn't hunger that made his belly feel like this.

He left the house then, giving Boney the usual scratch behind the ears, but only half-heartedly. Jamming his hands into his pockets, he found himself walking, not really having a destination in mind. The rhythmic pounding against the path as he put one foot in front of the other was slightly calming, lulling his mind into a state where he didn't have to think so hard. He didn't want to think about anything right now. As he wandered through the village square, Ness didn't acknowledge the people that greeted him, a blank expression on his face, leaving them staring after him in confusion. He didn't have it in him to talk to anyone just now.

The next thing he became aware of was the sound of crashing waves. Like a robot with a pre-programmed directive, Ness had made his way to the cliffs overlooking the ocean, the place he'd come with Lucas so many times. Gazing dully at the water, he sat down on the grass and pulled his knees to his chest, arms resting folded across the top. Resting his chin on his forearm, he chewed on his lower lip, brows knitting together. Here in this place, he realized it wasn't easy to refrain from thinking about his memories. He knew, deep inside, he _should_ be thinking about them, giving them weight, keeping them close to his heart.

But they hurt. One way or another, he hurt. The homesickness washed over him in a way that frightened him, the memories vying for dominance. Closing his eyes tightly, he tried to force them out of his head. He couldn't lose his composure like that. What would Lucas think?

Lucas... the soft-spoken blonde had unintentionally complicated things. Ness never imagined to find such a good friend when he washed up on the shore... nor did he expect to fall so hard for him. It was true, he loved Lucas. Upon realizing this, he began struggling to figure out where his true loyalties resided. The blonde-haired boy had saved him from the brink of death, took care of him, held his hand through all of this mess... which he had stupidly started. Against Paula's wishes.

Helplessly, he began to think about her, the final moments before he had been unwittingly tossed into the future. Paula had looked so concerned for him, like her heart was ripping in two when he said he was going to attempt the new teleportation regardless of what any of them said. Ness had not wanted anyone else to risk testing it. It was the last thing Dr. Andonuts had been studying before he disappeared, and he felt it was important to continue the research. For Jeff's sake. The only thing that was left to do was to actually try it.

He merely touched her nose with the tip of his finger and gave her a peck on the cheek, trying to assure her that nothing bad was going to happen, while ignoring her pleading. He had flashed a smile then, the dazzling smile that made Paula fall for him in the first place... the smile he reserved for her alone... and in that moment, she could only sigh in defeat. Her arms wrapped around him suddenly, hugging him tightly with force that belied her slender body. Ness had been taken by surprise at the display of affection... such things were in Paula's nature to do only when they were alone. But here she was, embracing him tightly in front of Jeff and Poo.

And then she kissed him. For what felt like endless seconds her lips molded firmly into his, and in the midst of this uncharacteristically forward approach, Ness began to feel hesitation. Paula's kiss conveyed a such a powerful feeling of love, and with it came a finality. Like it would never happen again. He couldn't allow himself to believe it would be the last time... but even so... His arms wrapped possessively around her, seeking to linger in the moment, kissing her back... as though he was memorizing it. Ness steeled his resolve to make everything work out, because he remembered everytime they touched how fiercely he loved her, too.

Only Jeff clearing his throat reminded Ness of their audience, and with a sigh he stepped back from Paula, whose cheeks became flushed to a lovely shade of pink to match her dress. Reluctantly, she slipped her arms off of him and took a step back as well.

"Did Paula manage to convince you not to be dumb?" Jeff glanced sideways at Paula.

"Are you kidding? That was a _bon voyage_."

"If you're done making jokes, can you at least try to focus so you don't get killed?" Poo said sternly.

Paula visibly flinched.

"Impossible, now that Paula bestowed me with good luck." Ness put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

His decision had been made. With friends like these, no silly teleport was going to break their bonds. Of that, Ness was completely confident. Striding to the middle of the deserted field they had gathered in, to allow plenty of room for this questionable fiasco, he turned to look back at the faces of his friends. They all looked dubious of his success, but he knew he'd see them again.

"Well, looks like it's go time," Ness nodded at Jeff.

"I guess there's no stopping you..." He adjusted his glasses with a sigh, glancing at Poo who stood silently next to him.

"Ness..."

"What is it, Paula?" Ness met her gaze and saw the worry there again.

"You'd better come back..."

"Okay." He grinned.

Ness could briefly recall the sensation when he activated the PSI. Unlike other teleportation abilities he had used before, this one immediately felt stronger, like the very cells of his body were being broken down and scattered. Then he had inexplicably been tossed into the ocean. It stretched from horizon to horizon, as far as he could see. Even when his arms began to tire while he treaded the water, he had indulged in his fantasy that he would be able to kiss Paula again. He tried to think about the texture of her golden hair, the taste of her cherry-flavored lip gloss... it brought him comfort, even when the darkness swept over him.

The dark-haired boy shivered, though the morning was balmy. He stared coldly at the small waves bobbing over the water with deceptive innocence. That ocean had nearly taken him, away from everything he loved. But Lucas had saved him. When he had opened his eyes on that shore, he caught a glimpse of the boy's face, with those fathomless blue eyes, and briefly wondered if he was in heaven. He had thought that an angel surely must have come to greet him.

He sighed, hugging his knees tighter to his chest. Lucas didn't even realize how much good he truly had done. Ness had managed to catch parts of the blonde's memories in the midst of the torrent of his own. He knew he had carried a heavy burden too, and also blamed himself for the death of his brother. To Lucas, feeling responsible for what happened to Claus more or less nullified any sort of peace of mind he might have deserved after the seventh needle had been pulled, and the world restored. Ness often wished he could kiss away every silly thought like that in his head.

Lucas blamed himself for a lot of things that weren't his fault, and Ness had always felt an intense urge to fight off his fears and calm his regrets as best he could. It may not have been perfect, but he wanted to help... needed to feel like he was doing some good in return for Lucas' kindness. Lucas trusted him implicitly, and it brought warmth to Ness' heart to see him smile. Though it was never discussed, he was fairly certain the blonde didn't have many reasons to smile before he showed up.

In recent days, Lucas smiled almost all the time, like a great weight had been lifted. In a very real way, it had. The pressures of trying to hide developing feelings he harbored for Ness became too much, but he was glad Lucas had revealed them. It was a big step for him, coming forth with his nervous kiss... completely oblivious to the fact that the feelings had been mutual the entire time. Ness had managed to sit on his urges most of the time, but sometimes his playful banter with the blonde had seemed to dissolve into what could only be classified as flirting. Of course, the dark-haired boy tried his best to keep things in check, he hadn't been sure until their lips touched that it was safe to pursue.

The problem was, now that his memories had resurfaced, he questioned whether it had really been safe to pursue, even though it was mutual. Ness sighed as he deliberated. His memories of home, and especially of Paula, reached for him with vivid clarity. He remembered exactly the way her hair smelled... like vanilla... and the way she would pout cutely when he'd tease her, only to beam at him moments later. The only other player in a private game between the two of them. Now that he remembered... he remembered how much he loved her.

But he loved Lucas, too. His quiet support and admiration stoked his ego, which needed more nurturing than Ness ever let anyone else know. The blonde seemed to intuitively know when he needed a kiss or hug, or his hand squeezed in reassurance. Behind Lucas' quiet front, Ness could see countless stories he wanted to uncover when he looked into his eyes. Lucas fascinated him, comforted him, and was completely devoted, without any room for doubt. Ness almost felt like it was a betrayal to think about these things, but what else was there to do?

"Ness...?" A hesitant voice spoke from behind him.

The sound of his approach startled him, even though it was soft.

"Hey, Lucas..."

"I was confused when you weren't there when I woke up... but I thought you might be here."

Of course Lucas would know.

"Yeah... sorry about that... I needed to think without overwhelming you," Ness tapped his forehead with the tip of his finger, smiling apologetically.

"I only see stuff when we touch... and anyway, it's okay... I don't mind helping you sort it all out." The other psychic had seated himself next to him.

Ness tensed as the blonde approached, not necessarily wanting to share everything he was thinking just now. Concerned, Lucas reached out for him.

"Lucas, don't--"

Before Ness could stop him, the blonde's fingers lightly brushed the back of his hand, only to be torn away as though he'd been scalded. Ness winced. It was clear from the look on Lucas' face that whatever he'd seen in that split second, he didn't like it. Why should he? Lucas sighed heavily and looked down. He had noticed Ness' mental comparison between two of the people he loved most.

"I'm sorry, Ness."

"Huh..?" The black-haired boy arched a brow in confusion.

"I'm being selfish... and I feel bad about it, but I can't stop."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't m-make myself pretend... to be happy anymore that you're remembering things... because the more you remember... the more I feel like I'm losing you to those m-memories..." The blonde stammered as he began to flush in embarrassment. "I-I just wish I could keep you all to myself forever... all mine... not P-Paula's... and... I know you deserve so much better than me... but..."

Ness' expression hardened as Lucas fumbled with his words.

"Shut up."

"W-What?" His head jerked up in surprise.

Ness' face was contorted into a scowl, angrily glaring out at the water. Lucas shrank back, afraid of the look in his eyes. He'd never seen Ness angry before... he'd always been so good-natured around the blonde-haired boy. Now, he was furious and Lucas had no idea what think. Was he mad that he'd mentioned Paula?

"Stop apologizing to me, I mean... seriously, what the hell, Lucas. _I'm_ the selfish one here."

"What?" Lucas repeated, eyes wide.

"Why do you always apologize when you've done nothing wrong? ...And come down on yourself? It drives me crazy." Ness sighed, finally turning to the blonde psychic.

His eyes were unreadable.

"I..." Lucas trailed off, completely at a loss.

"I'm the one who can't make a choice, Lucas. I'm so damn afraid of stepping on anyone's feelings I walk the line without having the balls to pick one or the other. You don't understand how hard it is to choose. If I could get away with it," Ness sighed again, "I'd have you both, even in the same time and place."

Ness buried his face in his hands, feeling like a monster for saying these things to the sensitive blonde.

"Ness..."

"You can't see what I see in you. What's already there inside of you... and the potential. You just don't know how easy it is to love you." The dark-haired boy's voice was cracking with emotion.

"...Ness?" His voice was timid.

"...What?"

"I don't know how much anyone else can love me..." Lucas began hesitantly, searching for the right words. "But I just hope to be good enough, since you're stuck here..."

Ness did not answer for a long time.

"Lucas..." He said softly. "I'm sorry, Lucas. I'm the one who owes _you_ an apology."

"W-What for?" Lucas breathed.

"You think you're competing with a memory... but it goes deeper than you think."

"I don't understand..."

"When we first began to be able to see each other's thoughts... I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I felt I could trust you completely so I was happy to share myself with you."

"Me too, Ness."

"But there's something... that I've tried to lock down because I didn't want to think about it consciously. It made my feelings harder to sort out, and I didn't want you to know... because I didn't want to hurt you." Ness looked up at Lucas, his eyes full of guilt. "But I think you have a right to know..."

"What is it...?" Lucas' eyes were frightened as he returned his gaze.

"I'm not stuck here at all, Lucas... I've remembered how to activate PK Teleport Ω. In my dream last night... Paula told me I should use it to go home."

The blonde trembled as he absorbed this new information. It was something he might've guessed eventually, had he been completely masochistic to his own heart. He never wanted to even consider the possibility of Ness having a means of leaving him.

"...Oh..." Lucas whispered, a lump forming in his throat.

"...That's the choice I need to make."


	8. The Right Thing To Do

_Author's Notes: I deeply apologize for how long it took to put out this chapter for you all to read. It's been a long time coming, and I won't waste your time with pointless excuses. I will, however, thank you all for your lovely comments, favorites, alerts, and reviews, both here and on deviantART. It means a lot to me._

_So, without further ado... I give you the conclusion to Saving You, Saving Myself._

_All characters and places in this work belong to Nintendo._

.

.

Saving You, Saving Myself  
Chapter Eight: The Right Thing To Do

.

.

The two boys didn't speak as they walked back to the house that afternoon. There was a tension between them that felt like it would become worse if either one of them dared to open his mouth. Lucas averted his eyes from his companion, staring at the ground in front of him. Ness had his hands stuffed into his pockets and kept his face carefully composed for the villagers they passed.

When they arrived at Lucas' home, Ness made straight for the stairs. His hand was on the banister and he had already climbed halfway up when Lucas caught his attention.

"Ness!"

"Yeah?" He half-turned to look at the other boy.

"It failed the last time you tried it..."

"I know."

"It could fail again." Lucas sounded worried.

"I know that, too."

"Ness... I don't want you to go."

Ness' lips set into a thin line.

"Neither did Paula."

With that, he ascended without another glance at Lucas. The blonde boy gaped at the spot where Ness had been standing, unsure of what to do next. What Ness had said couldn't possibly have been intentionally cruel. He could tell himself that all he liked, but it didn't ease the jab of pain rising within his chest.

In the meantime, Ness had perched on the edge of the spare bed upstairs, holding his face in his hands. The best course of action still eluded him, whether by coincidence or something in his subconscious making it difficult to arrive at an answer. It was hard to look at everything objectively, when he was so emotionally attached to both sides.

The dark-haired boy barely noticed Lucas joining him in the room. He didn't look at him, didn't see the expression on his face, or the way his hands were balled into fists of frustration.

"I don't believe it," the blonde boy muttered.

Ness lifted his head to demand what the hell Lucas was talking about, but a fist connected sharply with his jaw before he could speak. His eyes bulged, gawking at the blonde boy who stood there looking as surprised as he was.

Rubbing the abused spot, Ness furrowed his brow.

"Thanks, that really helps me think."

Ness speaking seemed to snap Lucas out of his shock over his own action, and his usually serene face became marred with a scowl.

"All of this happens, and all you can say is, 'I should apologize'! Unbelieveable!"

The blonde boy's voice wasn't all that loud, but his anger was made clear with the sharpness of his speech, and the way he didn't stutter. Ness might have been proud of his boldness, if he hadn't been on the receiving end of his wrath right now.

"Are you saying I shouldn't have?"

"Yes! I mean-- no!" Lucas threw his hands up in the air. "How come you let yourself get so close to me if you were thinking about leaving?"

"Might I remind you that I couldn't remember any of that at first?"

Lucas ignored him.

"You came here," he pointed an accusing finger at Ness, "and changed everything. Can't you see that? You showed up, and had to be so great, and kind, and charismatic, and..."

The blonde had begun to ramble, but his words were like a runaway train. Somehow he just couldn't make them stop as they flowed from his mouth.

"...and you made me love you so much." Lucas stared out the window, as though it was difficult to look at Ness while he spoke. "You didn't even have to try! All I want to know is why you had to end up here, of all places. Why did you have to come here? Why?!"

Lucas finally stopped talking as he choked on a sob. He fell to his knees, hot tears streaming down his cheeks, and he made no effort to stop them. All the feelings of love and frustration had culminated to the point of bursting, and he just needed to let them out in some way. His chest felt so tight, like it was being squeezed from all sides by some invisible force.

Ness didn't know what to say. He hesitantly reached out a hand, which hovered over the blonde teen before gently resting on his shoulder. Lucas gave no indication of noticing, until Ness had gathered him into his arms. The touch caused Lucas to shudder, partially from the sobs that wracked his body, but also because of things he began to see.

It was the first time the two boys had touched since the cliff, and Lucas still wasn't prepared or willing to view the contents of Ness' mind now. He wanted to push him away, but the warm arms around him only caused him to lean into him and bury his face into his shoulder. Ness stroked his hair silently as he let him cry, he didn't have to be psychic to tell how unhappy Lucas was. Nothing had to be said, his thoughts were on his current dilemma, and he knew Lucas could feel them.

As much as he didn't want to, the blonde caught on to Ness' indecision. As angry and hurt as Lucas was about the fact that he even entertained the thought of leaving him, he found he couldn't deny that he understood. Lucas bit his lip, hiding his face against the thin fabric of Ness' striped shirt. Ness closed his eyes, pillowing his cheek against soft blonde locks.

While Ness was holding him, there was no mistaking the way he somehow felt the the dark-haired boy was probing his mind for something, some form of information that had been touched upon before. Lucas found his thoughts swirling about things to do with his journey four years ago, and, confused, he complacently allowed Ness into his memories there.

That was when Ness found what he was looking for. One word, which caused Lucas to flinch in his arms.

_Porky_.

Lucas dared to lift his head up to look questioningly at the other teen, whose eyes opened to gaze back at him as he moved. Blue eyes locked with blue eyes, and Ness' hands cupped his face as the blonde could feel him poking and prodding at his mind. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation, but... strange. It was as though gentle fingers were combing through his memories, spreading them out to see them better.

While Ness took in Lucas' memories, the blonde pondered what the other boy could possibly be gaining from sifting through his thoughts, as he helplessly revisited every detail that had to do with the strange man that used the world as his toy box, and its inhabitants as his playthings. The yo-yo. The artifacts from Porky's childhood, which, Lucas noted, caused Ness' eyes to flicker with emotion as he recognized them.

Finally, the words that Lucas and his friends had exchanged with Porky himself. How much more twisted he had become than when Ness had last seen him. His childlike mind trapped forever in the ancient body of a frail old man. Porky had used his alien machine to abuse space and time, and the effects of his ability to do so had changed the lives of so many people. Altered their fates forever. Warped and toyed with the continuity of how things were originally destined to be.

Porky's presence in another time and place had even drastically changed the life of Jeff, the portly boy's irreverence for the natural order of things taking Dr. Andonuts away from his son forever.

Even Lucas. Especially Lucas.

His mother, his twin brother, both torn away by a monstrosity that would never have existed. Porky's meddling would not even let Claus die as he should have on that day, but caused his fragile body to keep going in a way that was not natural, like a puppet that could not remember his own name. He had been playing God, a spoiled child with too much power.

Ness gasped, his eyes widening, as though arriving at a revelation. Lucas stared at him with utter confusion. The black-haired teen's fingers clamped down on Lucas' shoulders and he looked at him seriously.

"Lucas... don't you see?"

"W-What...?" he asked, a bit unsettled by the look in his companion's eyes.

He could not understand what Ness was thinking about. Something in what Ness had witnessed sent his thoughts swirling in all directions, shapeless blobs and colors running together. Lucas could make neither heads nor tails of any of it.

"It's wrong, Lucas. All of it..."

"Sorry, what are you talking about?"

The blonde boy was hopelessly lost, but the strain in Ness' voice was evident.

"Lucas, time travel is not natural. Look at... what he's done to your world. To you, specifically. It should never be done... it messes with the way things are supposed to happen."

Lucas took in a sharp breath, immediately following his train of thought. His fingers, clutching the blue and yellow stripes of Ness' shirt, gripped so tightly the knuckles began to turn white.

"Don't say it!" Lucas cried, his face stricken with terror. "You aren't like him! You aren't here to ruin anything!"

Fresh tears began to stream down his cheeks. His eyes pleading, trying to will away the decision that seemed to be settling onto Ness' face.

"Lucas..."

His eyes were sympathetic.

"Ness, no!"

"Lucas. Stop it. Listen to me."

"No!" he whimpered, shaking his head furiously.

"Lucas!" Ness caught the blonde's face in his hands, forcing him to look him in the eye. "You need to listen!"

He stared into Ness' face and found he could not look away. Those blue eyes had captured him and were sucking him under. They gazed at one another for several long minutes, Lucas' crying eventually subsiding into simple sniffles as he felt himself calming slightly under the influence of Ness' soothing touch.

"Lucas," he tried again, his voice gentle. "Think about it this way... maybe there is something I was meant to do in my lifetime. Something else," he quickly added before Lucas would protest about Giygas already having been defeated.

"Like what?" Lucas asked sullenly.

"I don't know, but what if I was meant to do it, with my friends... and I was here, and not there when I needed to be? What would happen to them? What would happen to the task?"

"They could do it without you," he offered, but instantly hated how dumb he sounded when he said it.

Ness pursed his lips.

"Would you want Kumatora, Duster, and Boney to face danger without your help? What if they needed you?"

"I... that's..."

Lucas found, grudgingly, that he couldn't argue with that logic. Ness took the opportunity to pursue his line of thought.

"Porky was meant to live in Onett, he would've gone to high school with me, we probably would've become friends again at some point... everything went wrong when Giygas started wreaking havoc from another time, and Porky changed his own fate by running away to another time. Then he began to change other people's destinies. It wasn't his right, but..."

Ness sighed, and trailed off.

"Ness... please don't."

Ness winced at the complete and utter helplessness on Lucas' face. He had to gather a lot of courage to continue.

"...but I don't want to feel like I might be changing the fates of others where I shouldn't. I was born in Onett. I belong there. With my family."

His words hung thick and heavy in the air, almost tangible. Lucas stared at Ness as though the dark-haired boy had struck him, and Ness looked determined, which hurt the blonde. But it was the sympathy in his eyes that hurt most. Lucas didn't want to be felt sorry for, he wanted to see him stay.

"...But you couldn't control it before," he said meekly. "It's too risky... you're safe here, you should--"

"It's the right thing to do, Lucas," Ness interrupted.

Lucas' mouth hung open at the boldness, the recklessness of Ness' comment.

"Even if you can't do it successfully, you're gonna try?" Lucas asked, incredulously.

"I did before," he murmured.

"That was before! Don't I mean anything to you?!"

"Lucas, that's not fair... don't be like that."

"Why, so you can run home to your girlfriend?"

Ness froze. He didn't answer, but something behind his eyes hardened. The sympathy disappeared.

"If you want to call it that, Lucas. That's fine."

Lucas couldn't find words to form a response, even as Ness disengaged himself from the blonde and rose to his feet. He stared dumbly at Ness, both humiliated at his own foolish words and horrified at his abrupt change in attitude. Ness resolutely made his way towards the door, turning back just once to look at Lucas, still seated on the floor.

"I'm going to try to go back, Lucas. You can either support me, or you can't... that's up to you."

Ness said nothing more as he exited the room, and Lucas stared after him as he listened to his slow footsteps descending the wooden stairs, and finally the creak and click of the door shutting behind him. Panicking, Lucas got up and headed for the window, peering at the boy in the cap, who was walking away from his house without looking back. Lucas could only gape in shock at his retreating form, and even when Ness' back disappeared from view, the blonde stood there uncertainly for what seemed like ages.

A million feelings and thoughts whirled past him, love, rejection, confusion... but the most prominent feeling that niggled inside his mind was the feeling that he was acting selfish again. He loved Ness. He loved him like he hadn't felt love for anything in a long time. Lucas realized his jealousy was not helping matters, and if he really wanted Ness to stay, he wouldn't want it to be because Ness felt obligated, or sorry for him.

He wanted Ness to stay because _Ness_ wanted to stay.

Without another moment's hesitation, Lucas turned and ran out of his room, down the stairs, and out the front door of his house. Sprinting as fast as his legs would carry him into the village square, he paused, panting, unable to catch a glimpse of the dark-haired boy he sought. Wracking his brain for a few anxious moments, he tried to think of where Ness might have gone.

Then the answer hit him, plain as day.

Ness would be back at the beach. The place where everything began, and where everything would end horribly, if he didn't get there quickly.

Fleeing west out of the square, he ran along the worn dirt path that led to the water's edge. His heart was hammering in his ribcage and felt like it sped even faster when he caught sight of the capped figure he was looking for.

"Ness!" Lucas cried, slowing his steps as he came up behind the other boy, finally leaning over with his hands on his knees, panting.

Ness was staring out at the ocean, the beautiful, terrible thing that had nearly destroyed him, only to carry him with gentle arms to the shore. It hadn't been that long ago, but his time in Tazmily had become so familiar, it could have been years. Slowly, he turned around to look at the blonde, revealing a stoic face. They regarded each other for a few moments, neither one speaking.

Then, Ness' expression cracked into a smile.

"I'm glad you didn't just let me go like that. I was beginning to think you were all talk."

Lucas felt his heart leap.

"Then... you'll stay?"

Ness did not answer, but stepped forward and gathered Lucas into his arms.

"You know why I can't."

Lucas felt like crying again, but even as he felt his eyes once again brimming with tears, he shocked himself with his response.

"I know, Ness..."

His arms snaked their way around the black-haired teen's back, hands clasping together tightly behind him.

"If you believe I'll make it home okay, then I'm sure I will. I can't go wrong with people I care about rooting for me on both sides."

Lucas swallowed hard.

"I believe you'll be fine."

Lucas released Ness reluctantly when he felt his arms go slack, and he stepped back to look at the blonde.

"Thank you. For everything."

When Ness smiled, it was brilliant, like sunshine. When Lucas saw it, he found himself unable to resist smiling back.

"I know it's a lot to ask at this point," Ness continued, a bit sheepishly, "but can I ask you for one more favor?"

"Anything," Lucas replied.

"Can you give me a _bon voyage_?"

"A what?"

Ness didn't explain, but one of his hands was brought up to caress the blonde's cheek. The gentleness of the touch caused Lucas' eyes to flutter closed. Then warm lips pressed against his, and he sighed Ness' name softly against his mouth. The tender kiss conveyed, then silenced, all final regrets to be had, and all that was left when the two broke apart was a mutual sentiment of affection.

"Thanks again," Ness smiled again. "I guess... I should do this then, no sense in hesitating now."

Ness backed away from Lucas now, and something about the look on the dark-haired boy's face kept the blonde from following him. He stepped into the center of a broad expanse of sand, and he rubbed his hands together.

"Ness?"

"Yeah?"

"You'd better get home in one piece," he said quietly, his voice trembling.

Ness merely smiled. "Okay."

A few long moments passed, and Ness' blue eyes fell to a close, hands clasping together in concentration. Lucas watched with a mixture of fascination and anxiety as Ness focused his PSI. Lucas could feel the fine hairs on his arms prickling with the power the other boy was building up. A soft glow of pale cerulean began to surround his body as the psionic energy became even larger. The teleportation must have required more of it to be raised than he had ever imagined.

Bigger and bigger it grew, until the light shining from Ness' person suddenly exploded, scattering sparkling fragments of PSI power in a million directions, like a shower of shooting stars. It was so bright, Lucas had to shield his eyes. Even when it was done, and he lowered his trembling hands, white lights still danced in front of his vision.

That was when he saw that Ness had vanished.

Lucas stared blankly at the spot that he had last been standing. Even knowing it was going to happen, it was still so surreal. Taking slow steps to the indentation in the sand which had been the point of origin for Ness' final PSI in his world, he slowly sank to a sitting position on the ground.

Of all the things he could have been feeling at that moment, he was amazed to realize that he didn't really feel abandoned by the dark-haired boy. Hugging his knees to his chest, Lucas sighed softly. It wasn't abandonment he felt, at all. He almost felt... touched.

After all, Lucas knew... that even though they were never destined to meet at all, he would always have a place in the heart of a boy whose love was simply too big to keep him away from home.


End file.
